Based on recent analysis of the personalized medicine market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes NIBIB grantee QuantaLife, Inc. with the 2011 North America Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation for its Droplet Digital Polymerase Chain Reaction (ddPCR) System. The QuantaLife ddPCR System introduces the next generation of PCR by providing absolute quantification of nucleic acid molecules. Read the full article from PR Newswire.

Computer scientists at Brown University have created software to examine neural circuitry in the human brain. The 2-D neural maps combine visual clarity with a Web-based digital map interface, and users can view 2-D maps together with 3-D images. The program aims to better understand myelinated axons, which have been linked to pathologies such as autism.
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Damaged cartilage heals slowly, if at all. University of Pennsylvania bioengineers are using stem cells from patients’ bone marrow encapsulated in hydrogels to make replacement cartilage tissue in the laboratory. The technology may help the millions of Americans who suffer from osteoarthritis and cartilage injury.

In this first-in-human study the investigators proposed to explore the possibility of humans regaining standing and stepping functions (as observed previously in animals) through a combination of epidural stimulation with motor training. In year 2 of the award, the first implanted human subject is now able to stand and move his previously paralyzed lower limbs.

A new technology based on radiolytic labeling and mass spectrometry yielded the first high-resolution structural model of a potassium channel in open and closed positions. The model will improve scientists’ understanding of ion flow through potassium channels, a crucial component of heart and nerve function.

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and MIT engineered a targeted nanoparticle platform that may improve chemotherapy effectiveness. The platform delivers higher amounts of drugs precisely where they are needed with fewer side effects.

Pregnant women in rural and underserved areas in the United States and overseas could benefit from access to low-cost ultrasound equipment. A new approach to making transducers developed by researchers at General Electric’s Global Research Center in Niskayuna, New York, has the potential to reduce ultrasound system costs and increase access to prenatal ultrasound.

Early detection can be a matter of life and death for a cancer patient. To make cancer screening accessible to more patients, Rice University scientists and collaborators designed a low-cost portable microendoscope that enables detecting cancerous tissue at the point of care. The device may also be used to direct physicians where to take a diagnostic biopsy, aid in prognosis, and monitor treatment.

Rapid, sensitive screening of biomolecules allows researchers to ask new questions about why diseases begin and how they progress. Investigators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a fabrication technique and a screening system that match the accuracy of current molecular screening tests but are faster, less expensive, and easier to use.

Blood passing through a hemodialysis machine has a tendency to clot. University of Pennsylvania researchers discovered that the clotting is connected to an immune reaction to biomaterials used in the machine’s tubing and filters. They devised two strategies to tame the immune reaction and thereby reduce blood clotting.